Wall Street’s Bonus Inflation

Not too many years ago, any news story about bonus money would’ve been about some 20-year-old baseball player — an up-and-coming superstar getting $100,000 or so on top of his salary as an extra incentive to join the Yankees, Giants, or whatever team.

Far from superstars, they can be super-failures. Yet, as every year gets underway, we witness this cluster of greedmeisters quaffing champagne, laughing uproariously, and shouting, “It’s bonus time, baby!”

In the wake of 2013′s bull market, Wall Street’s bosses have just extracted a 15 percent raise in overall bonus money, totaling a ridiculous $26.7 billion.

That averages out to $165,000 in extra pay to each Wall Street banker. But averages deceive, for thousands of lower-level bankers are given a pittance, while those up in the executive suites make off with the bulk of the heist.

Consider the compensation of Jamie Dimon. The boss of JPMorgan Chase had a really terrible year in 2013, with his shareholders forced to shell out some $22 billion in penalties for a long rap sheet of illegalities. Still, Dimon took a 74 percent hike in bonus money — a cool $18.5 million.